UAE, Bahrain ‘strongly’ condemn car-ramming attack in Jerusalem

The U.S., EU, UK, Germany and France also expressed condemnation over the terrorist attack.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s new allies in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, “strongly” condemned Friday’s car-ramming attack in Jerusalem that killed three people, including six-year-old and eight-year-old brothers.

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “condolences to the Israeli government and its people and its sympathy to the families of the victims of this heinous crime, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.”

The statement further called the attack a “criminal act” and said that Abu Dhabi rejected “all forms of violence and terrorism aimed at undermining security and stability in contravention of human values and principles.”

The Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the “terrorist attack in Jerusalem,” and called for restraint from both sides “to create an atmosphere suitable for renewing the peace process between the Israeli and Palestinian people.”

Friday’s attack, in which 31-year-old eastern Jerusalem resident Hossein Karaka plowed his car into a group of pedestrians at a bus stop near the Ramot neighborhood, killed Asher Menachem Fali, 8, his younger brother Yaakov Yisrael, 6, and Shlomo Lederman, a 20-year-old yeshiva student.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the attack “repugnant.”

“The deliberate targeting of innocent civilians is repugnant and unconscionable. We stand firmly with Israel in the face of this attack,” he said.

European Union Ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantchev said he was “horrified and saddened” by the terror attack, adding that the “EU strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism.”

UK Foreign Secretary Kingdom James Cleverly condemned the “appalling” and “abhorrent” terror attack, and noted that the targets were children. “My thoughts are with the families of the victims and those injured,” Foreign Secretary of the he said.

Germany said it condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”

“To deprive terrorism of its breeding grounds, political dialogue & more cooperation are urgently needed,” a statement from its foreign office said.